Both Conservative and Labour administrations have now refused to release research showing PIP payments are vital for disabled people’s survival, exposing the ideological nature of planned welfare ‘reforms,’ writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
Is ‘artificial intelligence’ a threat or a promise?
The impact of AI depends on who controls it and for what purpose, argues the Marx Memorial Library
Western media dismisses the National People’s Congress while ignoring its extensive consultation processes, massive public participation mechanisms, and a tiered structure involving millions of deputies, explains JENNY CLEGG
Despite caring for vulnerable children and often covering classes, support staff remain undervalued, with some earning less than supermarket workers — but GMB’s campaigning offers new hope, argues DONNA SPICER
NICK WRIGHT examines how Farage’s party has attracted five distinct voter tribes with incompatible views on economics, immigration and state intervention — presenting both a challenge and opportunity for left organising
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
As climate change makes vast mineral deposits accessible, the island’s 56,000 residents face unprecedented pressure from Trump’s territorial ambitions while struggling to maintain their traditional way of life, writes JOHN GREEN
Student Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and threatened deportation are terrifying — but the moribund Democrats are still failing to mount any meaningful resistance against the slide toward autocracy, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
POPULAR debate over the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) tends to be couched in terms of utopias or dystopias.
Will AI lead to some benign post-capitalist paradise — “fully automated luxury communism” perhaps, or to a hellish “technofeudalism”? The answer of course is probably neither (though, yes, capitalism could get even worse!).
Policy debate tends by contrast to focus on responses — education, reskilling, the need to remain competitive by removing barriers to the adoption of AI, and more vague exhortations that “we” need to make sure that the potential benefits are realised. (Sometimes a virtuous “and shared” is added).
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ROS SITWELL reports from a conference held in light of the closure of the Gender Identity and Development Service for children and young people, which explored what went wrong at the service and the evidence base for care
ROS SITWELL reports from the three-day FiLiA conference in Glasgow
ROS SITWELL reports on a communist-initiated event aimed at building unity amid a revived women’s movement
London conference hears women speak out on the consequences of self-ID in sport
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JON BALDWIN recommends a well-informed survey of the ills promoted by AI tech corporations, and the measures needed to stop them exploiting us
The ‘degrowth’ debate raises critical issues to which only a Marxist approach can provide answers, argues the Marx Memorial Library
The increased efficiency of any aspect of capitalism will not automatically lead to its collapse and transformation — avoiding the dangers and realising the potential of AI will involve struggle, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY